Shingle



Jan. 5, 1937. J. B. STEVENS SHINGLE Filed Jan. 10, 1955 IHHW WHW l fra/67%# Jaaa/z Z5. Zez/efz&

Patented Jan. 5, 1937 SHINGLE p Josiah B. Stevens, Aurora, Ill.,`assignor to Orenda Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of l Illinois Application January 10, 1935,'Serial No. 1,106

, z Claims. (Cl. 108-8) This inventionrelates to shingles, and in its illustrated forms is especially suitable for siding, although it may be used for roofing as well. The shingles are particularly `advantageously made of a mixture of asbestos and Portland ce-` Yment or similar materials, although they may be 1 made of other types of roofing material such as asphalt saturated and coated felt, with or without a granular coating.

l Two problems have long confronted the roof`` ing and siding industry. One is to provide the maximum amount of protection with the mini-v mum amount 'of material, and the other is to provide` shingles. which may be easily and ef- 'fectively laid.` The present invention solves both of these problems muchv more `effectively than they have been solved heretofore.V The shingles being of a shape which mayv roughly be de-` scribed as T-shaped,` therebydispensewith all unnecessary overlapping. The main vpart which 0 corresponds to the horizontalmember `of the T is the exposed `portion of the shingle and the auxiliary member corresponding to the leg of the T extends under or between the adjacent edges of two other shingles to catch any water that otherwise might leak between said other shingles. The leg of the T is preferably of such length or height that its far edge may be used as a guide for the proper relative positioning of other shingles. It it also preferred in some instances that this extension be lprovided with notches, points, or other indications at its transverse centertoaid in properly positioning the overlying shingles in a` transverse direction. It is further desirable, particularly in connection with hard, rigid asbestos shingles, which include Portland cement, that nailing holes be provided near the upper corners of the main part of each shingle, and that the extension be enough short'- er than the width of the transverse member that 40 the overlap accomplished by `using the end of the extensionvas a guide will adequately protect" the nail holes from` leakage. The extensions save considerable labor also Vin avoiding the nef cessity for adding similar pieces separately. If

the surface being keep the shingles more nearly parallel.

With these and various other objects in view,

the invention may consist of certain novel features of construction and operation, as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the specification, drawing and claims appended hereto.

In the drawing, which illustrates four emcovered is uneven the ex- '"7 tensions tend to bridge over the depressions and ing the shingles,

bodiments` of the device, and wherein like reference charactersare used to designate like parts,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view showing the cutting pattern of the shingles of thisinvention;

Figures 2, Y3 and 4 are illustrations of three forms of the shingle of this invention;` and g Figure 5'illustrates the shingles of Figure 2 when laid in onepreferred manner.

Although my invention may take many forms, 1o

only a few have been chosen for illustration` For the sake of clarity the various forms may be divided into two types, those having vertical extensions and those having horizontal extensions, although in practice it will usually be possible to la use a single shingle either Way.

In each of the various forms the shingle comprises a main orbody or transverse portion HL. and an auxiliary portion I2 extending from one edge thereof.` In the vertical extension type the 20 extension 2 forms the vertical member or leg of an inverted T which, roughly speaking, ls the shape of the shingle. This type, shown in Figures 1 to 5, may be considered first. In the simplest ofthe vertical extension forms chosen vfor illustration the vertical member I2 is shaped as shown in Figure 2, with the pointed end portion terminating in a point I4. Instead of being pointed V by flat edges as shown, the end portion of the extension |2` may bereduced or tapered o in anyother manner, either by curves or by angular edges. The purpose of this reduction is not only to form the guidepoint H., but also so that when the. shingles `are laid as shown in Figure 5 the holes I6 which are provided in the 35 upper corners of the transverse member l0 will not be blocked by the underlying shingles. `It is of course Vdesirable that the hole I6 be sufficlently removed from the edges so that it will not be broken out easily, and at the same time it is 40 vdesirable that the end portion of the vertical member I2 be so reduced or otherwise shaped as to avoid blocking the hole I6 in an overlying shingle. It may be ,noted that in the drawing the holes are disproportionately large, with vthe re- .45 sult Vthat they appear to be much closer to the edges of vthe shingles than they really are.

Five-eighths of an inch hasbeen found to be Va satisfactory distance, though of course this may be varied according to other proportions, `or-50 individual preference.

The guide point I4 is extremely helpful in layfor "when the bottom row of shingles has been laid the shingles of the next row may very easily be placed in exactly the 55 right positions by registering the corner points il of each shingle with the guide points I4 of two adjacent shingles therebeiow. With the shapes illustrated this will result not only in centering each overlying shingle evenly between the two underlying shingles, but also in causing the overlying shingle to overlap the underlying shingles" by exactly the desired amount. There is an iiicidental but important function that the overlying shingle is positioned parallel with the underlying shingles, and therefore properly levelled if, as is usually the case, the courses extend horizontally. I

Instead of being provided with the single guide point il as shown in the Figure 2, the vertical extension member I2 may be provided with a notch 20, which forms two spaced guide points i4' at its top.

This notch 20 has such width as may be the desired spacing between adjacent shingles in a row, when such spacing apart of the shingles is desired. It is quite common to place shingles approximately a quarter of an inch apart; so that if this is done in one course, and if the notch is a quarter of an inch wide, the succeeding course may be properly and easily laid by registering the corners i8 of each shingle with the righthand guide point I4' on the lefthand one of a pair of underlying shingles and with a lefthand guide point of the righthand one of said pair. Bymaking the bottom oi' the notch 20 angular this angle may be used for marking the center of the vertical member I2 if itis desired to lay the shingles without'spacing. In this event the side edges of the'upper shingle are aligned with the angle in the notch of the lower shingle and the upper edge of the main portion I0 of the upper shingle is registered with either of the points Il of the under shingle. i

In Figure 4 the notches are so shaped as to form three guide points, the center one and the one on either side. There is a slight advantage in l this form in that each of the three points marks the proper position for the top of the main section l0 of the overlying shingles regardless of what its lateral position may be.

Figure 4 is also different from Figures 2 and 3 in that the end portion instead of being reduced is slotted to prevent the blocking of the hole I6 in the overlying shingle. It should be noted, however, that all of these forms have the common feature of being specially shaped to prevent the blocking of the nail hole in the overlaid shingle. Although only three forms of the shingle have been illustrated it should be understood that any of the features illustrated could be applied to any of the shingles. For example, the notch of Figure 3 could be like that shown in Figure 4. There are doubtless many other means of indicating the center or other desired points on the shingle and any of them would come within the spirit of this invention. Forexample, the center point in Figure 4 may project from the upper edge of the shingle rather than from the bottom of the notch. Likewise, instead of a notch or a point, a round or angular hole may be used, though of course it is preferred that the hole be no lower than the slots 22.

Although the various shingles of this invention may be of almost any desired size, the size usually being determined either by the appearance desired, or by the strength of the material, and per haps also by the size of the producing machine, it may be well for the sake of an example to state -relatively little space that is the size preferred by applicant at the present' time. For the main portion' this is sixteen inches by eight inches. In the forms' of Figures 1 to 5 the vertical leg may be seven inches in height (thus making the transverse portions overlap one another by one inch). A width of four inches will usually be adequate for this portion. In a rigid product like asbestos shingles this is not too large for durability, but makes a coverage exceedingly cheap since in a given area there will be covered by overlap'- pingportions of shingles. Even if the size of the main portion of the shingle were reduced, it would be undesirable to make much reduction in the width of the vertical extension of the shingle since as this is made more narrow there is some possibility that a strong Wind will blow water laterally and cause it to get inside of the shingles.

Y It is believed that a vertical extension four inches wide safely prevents this when the shingles are not laid much more than a quarter of an inch apart, especially when the shingles are used as siding where gravity has a more pronounced effect than on the roof.

The coverage of a given area is very economical, not only as concerns the finished shingles, but also as concerns the blank from which the shingles are cut, for there is very little Waste in cutting the blank, the preferred cutting pattern being shown in Figure 1, from which it may be seen that the only waste is found in cutouts 26 and 28, the latter of which occurs only at the end of a row. As a matter of fact, in asbestos shin-v gles these cutout portions are not wasted since, being cut out before the cement has materially set, they may be put back into the vat to be mixed into new stock.

It is to be understood that many other embodiments of. the invention, including some in improved form, will be apparent, and in the course of time more will be devised by those skilled in the art. It is not desired that this invention be limited to the details described, for its scope includes all such forms or improvements as come within the spirit of the following claims, construed as broadly as the prior art will permit.

What is claimed is:

1. A rigid shingle formed in part of a set cement and having a main body portion and an extension therefrom remote from its ends, said main body portion having nailing holes therethrough through its upper corners, said extension having a length less than the length from top to bottom of said main body portion by the amount of overlap desired, and said extension having its upper end pointed in such manner as to mark the center thereof, and also avoid interference with a nail passing through the hole in the overlying shingle, the corner of which registers with the underlying point.

'2. A rigid shingle formed in part of a set cement and having a main body portion and an extension therefrom, said shingle having nailing holes therethrough adjacent the upper corners of Said body portion, said extension having a length less than the length from top to bottom of said main body portion by the amount of overlap desired, and said extension having its upper end pointed in such a manner as to mark the center thereof and also avoid interference with a nail passing through the hole in an overlying shingle, the corner o1' which registers with the underlying point.

JOSIAH B. STEVENS. 

